International Center For Agricultural Research In The Dry Areas Research Articles

Genetic dissection and genomic prediction of drought indices in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes.

Drought constitutes the main obstacle to agricultural productivity in the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, notably leading to substantial reductions in wheat yields due to terminal water stress. The adoption of drought-resistant wheat varieties appears to be a vital strategy to maintain wheat production in the face of climatic challenges. In this context, a study was conducted utilizing a set of 198 elite bread wheat genotypes developed at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). This set of elite genotypes was evaluated at the Sidi Al-Aidi station in Morocco over two years (2021-2022), under rain-fed and irrigated conditions. Phenotypic assessments for grain yield and drought indices were performed, alongside genotyping the population using 15k SNP markers. These preparatory steps facilitated a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and genomic prediction, leveraging the Mixed Linear Model (MLM) to pinpoint marker-trait associations (MTAs) and candidate genes pertinent to grain yield and drought indices. The results manifested substantial variations in both grain yield and drought indices among the genotypes tested. Grain yield performance ranged from 0.34 to 2.57 t/ha under rain-fed conditions and 1.12 to 4.57 t/ha under irrigated scenarios. The comprehensive analysis identified 39 significant MTAs (p < 0.001) and 14 putative genes associated with drought indices and grain yield. Noteworthy is the marker “wsnp_Ex_c12127_19394952” on chromosome 5B, which displayed a significant correlation with grain yield in rain-fed environments. Furthermore, the most prominent marker linked to tolerance index (TOL) was “BobWhite_c42349_99”, situated on chromosome 5A and associated with the TraesCS5A02G498000 gene. This gene plays a critical role, encoding for catalase protein crucial for response to hydrogen peroxide. These markers could be used for marker-assisted selection in wheat breeding programs targeting drought tolerance.

Uncovering Fusarium Species Associated with Fusarium Wilt in Chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.) and the Identification of Significant Marker–Trait Associations for Resistance in the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas’ Chickpea Collection Using SSR Markers

Enhancing plants’ resistance against FW is crucial for ensuring a sustainable global chickpea production. The present study focuses on the identification of fungal pathogens and the assessment of ninety-six chickpea samples for Fusarium wilt from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)’s collection. Eight fungal isolates were recovered from the symptomatic chickpeas. Polyphasic identification was conducted by comparing the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), the elongation factor 1-α (tef1-α), and beta-tubulin (tub2). Among them, Neocosmospora solani, N. nelsonii, N. falciformis, N. brevis, Fusarium brachygibbosum, and F. gossypinum were identified. An analysis of the genetic diversity of chickpeas, using 69 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, revealed a total of 191 alleles across all markers, with, on average, each SSR marker detecting approximately 2.8 alleles. A STRUCTURE analysis delineated lines into two distinct sub-groups (K = 2). Association mapping, using the generalized linear model (GLM) and mixed linear model (MLM) approaches, identified six and five marker–trait associations (MTAs) for FW resistance, respectively. Notably, these TA42, TA125 (A) and TA125 (B), TA37, and TAASH MTAs, commonly found in both models, emerge as potential candidates for the targeted enhancement of FW resistance in chickpeas. To our knowledge, this study represents an inaugural report on the association mapping of genomic loci governing FW resistance in chickpeas from the ICARDA’s accessions.

The CIMMYT Australia ICARDA Germplasm Evaluation concept: a model for international cooperation and impact.

Bread wheat germplasm is accessed from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) by Australian wheat breeders and researchers through the CIMMYT Australia ICARDA Germplasm Evaluation (CAIGE) program. The CAIGE program coordinates the selection, importation, quarantine, dissemination, and evaluation of the imported bread wheat germplasm and the management of associated data and information. This paper describes the CAIGE model and assesses both the genetic and economic impacts of these materials on the Australian wheat industry after commercialisation of wheat breeding in the early 21st century and the establishment of CAIGE. The CAIGE concept was validated using data collected and analysed from multi-environment trials between 2017 and 2020. The impact of cultivars with and without CAIGE contribution to pedigree on yield was estimated using production-by-variety statistics. Net gain in yield, estimated as the yield difference between CAIGE and Non-CAIGE varieties, was multiplied by the percentage contribution to pedigree to estimate the additional yield. The CAIGE bread wheat program identified diverse, high-yielding, and disease-resistant germplasm and significantly improved the capture and dissemination of information. The benefit-cost ratio, calculated as the sum of benefits divided by investments, indicated that, for every dollar invested in CAIGE, a further $20 was generated in benefits. The internal rate of return was estimated at 163% and the modified rate at 18%. The benefits of these international materials to Australian wheat breeding remained significant.

Future of durum wheat research and breeding: Insights from early career researchers.

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) is globally cultivated for pasta, couscous, and bulgur production. With the changing climate and growing world population, the need to significantly increase durum production to meet the anticipated demand is paramount. This review summarizes recent advancements in durum research, encompassing the exploitation of existing and novel genetic diversity, exploration of potential new diversity sources, breeding for climate-resilient varieties, enhancements in production and management practices, and the utilization of modern technologies in breeding and cultivar development. In comparison to bread wheat (T. aestivum), the durum wheat community and production area are considerably smaller, often comprising many small-family farmers, notably in African and Asian countries. Public breeding programs such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) play a pivotal role in providing new and adapted cultivars for these small-scale growers. We spotlight the contributions of these and others in this review. Additionally, we offer our recommendations on key areas for the durum research community to explore in addressing the challenges posed by climate change while striving to enhance durum production and sustainability. As part of the Wheat Initiative, the Expert Working Group on Durum Wheat Genomics and Breeding recognizes the significance of collaborative efforts in advancing toward a shared objective. We hope the insights presented in this review stimulate future research and deliberations on the trajectory for durum wheat genomics and breeding.

PEARL-21: SIX ROWED, HIGH YIELDING, HEAT STRESS RESISTANT, AND EARLY MATURING BARLEY CULTIVAR

Pearl-21, an early maturing barley cultivar that was developed keeping in view the fluctuating climatic scenarios as drought stress is severely impairing the yield of crops in Pakistan. The exquisite genotypes were received from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Lebanon. The superior line was screened out from the international barley segregating population received from ICARDA. It was evaluated under code B-14035 in station yield trails for two years (2014-15 &amp; 2015-16). It excelled by 15.26% and 7.38% in provincial barley yield trials during 2017-18 and 18.77% and 10.18% in national barley yield trials during 2018-19 in contrast to commercial checks Haider-93 and Sultan-17, respectively over four locations. It also presented encouraging results in rainfed yield trials. Pathological studies depicted that the proposed cultivar had exceptional resistance against rust diseases. Pearl-21 has plant height ranging from 95-99 cm with semi-erect growth habit both at the seedling and booting stage. It has a high tillering trend (140 productive tillers per meter). It took only 99-101 days to head while, 123-130 days for maturity. It bears 60-70 seeds per ear and has 34-38g thousand-grain weight. The prominent features it encompasses are drought and lodging tolerance and short duration. Due to encouraging steady performance for better grain yield, resistance against rusts, and quality Punjab Seed Council approved it in 2021 with the name “Pearl-21” for general cultivation in Punjab, Pakistan.

Diversity, conservation and utilization of grain legumes: A potential source for food and nutritional security in Nepal

Grain legumes are precious crops of Nepal in terms of the dietary protein supplement ample concentration of micronutrients, and role in crop intensification and ameliorating soil fertility. About 11% of the cultivated area is occupied by grain legumes that include lentil, chickpea, grasspea, fieldpea, fababean, pigeonpea, soybean, blackgram, horsegram, ricebean, cowpea, and mungbean. About 100 genera and 379 species of legumes are distributed in diverse agroecological zones ranging from terai to the alpine region of Nepal, with growth habits ranging from annual to perennial shrubs. Out of the 379 species of legumes which include grain, vegetable, and forage legumes, 262 are native, and 20 species belonging to the sub-group Papilionacae are used as food legumes. Highest food legume species diversity has been recorded in Macrotyloma (34 spp.), followed by Crotalaria (18 spp.), Vigna (15 spp.), Lathyrus (7 spp.), Vicia (6 spp.), Cajanus (5 spp.), Trigonella (5 spp.) and Phaseolus (4 spp.). Other genus having 1-3 species includes Cicer (3 spp.), Mukuna (3 spp.), Glycine (2 spp.), Canavila (2 spp.), Pisum (2 spp.), Lablab (2 spp.), Pachyrrhizus (1 sp.), Psophocarpus (1 sp.), Lens (1 sp.) and Cyamopsis (1 sp.). Research on grain legumes was initiated in 1976 and a systematic collection of grain legume landraces was done in 1987 by the Grain Legumes Research Program (GLRP). Past collection missions organized in collaboration with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and other institutes have resulted in the collection of 1107 landraces and provided an opportunity for their inclusion in the variety improvement program. National Agricultural Genetic Resources Center (NAGRC) has conserved 2936 landraces of different legumes, 951 landraces have been kept in gene banks of ICARDA center, while GLRP Khajura has active collections of 218 landraces and 627 exotic germplasm of various legume crops. Varietal improvement programs resulted in the development of 51 varieties, while 6 varietes were registered and two varieties were de-notified in food legumes (lentil, chickpea, soybean, cowpea, black gram, mungbean, pigeon pea, rice bean, faba bean, grass pea, and kidney bean).

Phytosanitary management of ICARDA’s germplasm seed collections for safe movement and better future use

Abstract Germplasm exchange from international genebanks and breeding programs is vital for successful crop improvement programs. More than 10,000 different accessions of wheat, barley, lentil, faba bean, chickpea, grasspea, and pasture and forage crops are distributed by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) every year to around 70 countries. New accessions are added to the germplasm collections in the Center's genebank and utilized in the breeding programs. Recent years have witnessed an increasing global concern about the loss of plant genetic resources because of conflicts, human pandemic diseases, extreme weather events, pest and disease outbreaks, and natural calamities such as earthquakes, floods, etc., which led to disrupting access to germplasm and undermining social protection systems. Safety duplication of germplasm collections held in genebanks in other institutions, including international, regional, and national genebanks, as well as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV), is one of the essential measures to safeguard germplasm and also to replenish any lost accessions and resume use and distribution of seeds to users internationally. Germplasm distribution procedures are conducted per International Plant Protection Convention phytosanitary regulations to avoid the transboundary spread of seed-borne pests and pathogens. The ICARDA’s Seed Health Laboratory exercises maximum efforts to maintain the “phytosanitary clean” health status of germplasm during regeneration, conservation, distribution and ensure compliance with phytosanitary regulations in international germplasm distributions to guarantee minimum loss of genetic resources. These efforts include the development of new methods to detect and manage seed-borne pathogens. An increase in global awareness to preserve germplasm for current and future use is crucial to combat climate challenge, malnutrition, and food insecurity.

SSR Genotyping and Marker-Trait Association with Yield Components in a Kazakh Germplasm Collection of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).

Genetic diversity and marker-trait association with yield-related components were assessed in 39 chickpea accessions from a germplasm collection with either spring or autumn-sown seeds in South-Eastern Kazakhstan. Chickpea accessions originated from Azerbaijan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Türkiye, Ukraine, Syria, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Eleven SSR markers were used for molecular genotyping. Yield and yield components were evaluated in nine traits in experiments with spring and autumn seed sowing. The number of alleles of polymorphic markers varied from 2 to 11. The greatest polymorphism was found in the studied chickpea genotypes using SSR marker TA22 (11 alleles), while NCPGR6 and NCPGR12 markers were monomorphic. In the studied chickpea accessions, unique alleles of the SSR loci TA14, TA46, TA76s, and TA142 were found that were not previously described by other authors. An analysis of correlation relationships between yield-related traits in chickpea revealed the dependence of yield on plant height, branching, and the setting of a large number of beans. These traits showed maximal values in experiments with chickpea plants from autumn seed sowing. An analysis of the relationship between the SSR markers applied and morphological yield-related traits revealed several informative markers associated with important traits, such as plant height, height to first pod, number of branches, number of productive nodes, number of pods per plant, hundred seed weight, seed weight per plant, and seed yield.

Genotype × environment × agronomic management interaction to enhance wheat yield in the Mediterranean rainfed environments of Morocco: II. Process based modeling

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum) is the oldest and most cultivated cereal crop in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and under Mediterranean climatic conditions. Morocco is one of the largest producer of durum wheat in MENA region, cultivated in more than 1 million ha area produced 2.5 million tons in 2020, which accounts for 17% of the total production in the region. In the region, rainfed production system is predominant, and with declining rainfall amounts with high variability, increasing water scarcity, and suboptimal input application, its productivity growth is low and needs to be increased to fulfill the growing demand. Developing context-specific management advisory is needed to improve productivity and resilience under such variable rainfed production environments. Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) model was calibrated and evaluated using four years (2015–2019) of on-station experimental data from genotype × seeding time × water management experiment conducted at International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) research station, Morocco. Long-term (1984–2021) simulation was carried out to determine the contribution of Genotype × Environment × Management components for sustainably improving crop productivity. The results showed rainfall or supplementary irrigation (23–36%) followed by N fertilizer (28–38%), cultivar (9–14%), and seeding date (7–14%) have the largest contribution to the yield variance of durum wheat in Merchouch, Meknes, and Sidi El Aidi regions of Morocco. Under rainfed conditions, wheat yield was highest in Merchouch (4.5 t ha−1) and lowest (1.8 t ha−1) in Sidi El Aidi. Due to significant rainfall variability, the seeding date varies across year and location; however, generally, it is between 2nd week of November to 1st week of December. Under rainfed conditions, seeding after 1st week of December caused the average yield reduction of 120, 81, and 31 kg ha−1 d−1 in Merchouch, Meknes, and Sidi El Aidi, respectively. In all locations, short-duration varieties provided higher averaged yields with better resilience than medium and long-duration varieties. Decomposing yield variance caused by Genotype × Environment × Management provides the opportunity for risk reduction, improvement of wheat yield and resilience, and designing climate-smart adaptation strategies in rainfed Mediterranean conditions. Our findings highlight one-size-fits-all approach is inadequate and context-specific tailored agronomic practices and suitable genotypes is crucial for achieving sustainability and resilience of wheat production in variable climatic condition in Morocco and similar production environment.

Performance New Entries of Broad Bean Under Supplementary Irrigation Conditions

In this study, (25) new entries of broad bean (Vicia faba L.) were used. Sourced from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The entries seeds (25) were planted in an experiment according to a completely randomized block design with three replications at Al-Tuwaitha Research Station / Plant Breeding and Improvement Center / Agricultural Research Department during the growing season 2021/2022,With the aim of evaluating the entries and selecting the best ones in traits of yield and its components. The results showed that there were significant differences between the averages of the Entries and for all the studied traits, where entry (3) was characterized by the highest number of main stem nodes and the length of the pod. The number of seeds per pod is (26.00, 13.50 and 4.00) respectively, and entry (6) has the highest dry pod yield (132) and the highest seed yield (262). The entry (15) has the highest weight of 100 seeds (285.00) through the variation in the averages of the traits. Its use in breeding programs for selection for high seed yield of broad bean.

Phenotypic diversity of Medicago crop wild relatives growing in Lebanon

Medicago L. (Fabaceae; Papillionoidae) has high nutritive value, palatability, and ability to improve the soil fertility which puts it as one of the world’s most important forages. Medicago genetic resources are suffering from anthropogenic destructions, overgrazing, climate change and drought. Using the results of a previous gap analysis, which prioritized the species and sites for in situ and ex situ conservation, this study aims to undertake ex situ conservation activities for high priority annual Lebanese species. Accessions of the target species were collected, multiplied, characterized and conserved at Genebank of The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Based on characterization data, morphological diversity assessment is carried out to analyse the phenotypic variability pattern in relation with the environmental conditions of the collection sites. The analysis of 26 characters applied on 19 collected species has shown a significant variability for 13 characters. The species Medicago polymorpha L. from Chwaifat, M. polymorpha from Shebenieh, M. truncatula Gaertn and M. orbicularis (L.) Bartal from Jeita, and M. constricta Durieu from Bwerij had characters that could be related to drought tolerance as they have displayed a high early vigour and an early flowering. In depth analysis of the characters early vigour, days to flowering and days to pod formation within the species in relation to drought tolerance further informed our proposed management plan. On this basis, the accessions showing a high adaptability to harsh conditions will be subject to in situ conservation.

Identification of novel donors for yield contributing traits from Chickpea Adaptive Trials (CAT) of ICARDA for base broadening of Indian chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

The Chickpea Adaptation Trial (CAT) of International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), comprising of 36 genotypes was raised during rabi 2019-20 for estimation of variability, heritability and association among yield and its components characters. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block (RCBD) design with two replications. Analysis of variance showed significant variability among the genotypes used for the study. Days to flowering and days to maturity were observed to record high heritability, which indicated the influence of dominant and epistatic gene action for these traits. Character association study among yield and yield contributing traits revealed that seed yield exhibited significant positively correlation with test weight. All the chickpea genotypes were grouped into three discrete clusters with higher genetic diversity for different traits suggesting good amount of variability among the genotypes. &nbsp; Keywords: Chickpea, Adaptation Trial, Variability, Correlation, Clustering.

Screening of Lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris) Germplasm for Resistance to Stemphylium Blight Disease Using Qualitative Characters

In terms of both acreage and productivity, lentil is India's second most important pulse crop. Stemphylium blight, caused by Stemphylium botrysum Wallr., is a serious economic problem in eastern parts of India including West Bengal. As most of the cultivated lentil are susceptible to Stemphylium blight disease, the main alternatives for the control of the disease is to use highly toxic fungicides. The objective of this work is to evaluate the responses of 210 numbers of genotype collected from International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in order to support the alternative disease management strategy. The qualitative attributes like days to flowering, height of the plant and leaf area were taken into consideration which were converted to qualitative attributes by using cluster analysis. Along with that branching pattern and canopy types was also recorded as qualitative parameters. The result clearly indicated that days to flowering, leaf area, branching habit and canopy temperature significantly influence the disease development.

Genetic characterization and genome-wide association mapping for stem rust resistance in spring bread wheat

BackgroundEmerging wheat stem rust races have become a major threat to global wheat production. Finding additional loci responsible for resistance to these races and incorporating them into currently cultivated varieties is the most economic and environmentally sound strategy to combat this problem. Thus, this study was aimed at characterizing the genetic diversity and identifying the genetic loci conferring resistance to the stem rust of wheat. To accomplish this, 245 elite lines introduced from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) were evaluated under natural stem rust pressure in the field at the Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) marker data was retrieved from a 15 K SNP wheat array. A mixed linear model was used to investigate the association between SNP markers and the best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) values of the stem rust coefficient of infection (CI).ResultsPhenotypic analysis revealed that 46% of the lines had a coefficient of infection (CI) in a range of 0 to 19. Genome-wide average values of 0.38, 0.20, and 0.71 were recorded for Nei’s gene diversity, polymorphism information content, and major allele frequency, respectively. A total of 46 marker-trait associations (MTAs) encompassed within eleven quantitative trait loci (QTL) were detected on chromosomes 1B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, and 5A for CI. Two major QTLs with –log10 (p) ≥ 4 (EWYP1B.1 and EWYP1B.2) were discovered on chromosome 1B.ConclusionsThis study identified several novel markers associated with stem rust resistance in wheat with the potential to facilitate durable rust resistance development through marker-assisted selection. It is recommended that the resistant wheat genotypes identified in this study be used in the national wheat breeding programs to improve stem rust resistance.

APLICACIÓN DE DIFERENTES METODOLOGÍAS EN EL MEJORAMIENTO DE LENTEJA (Lens culinaris MEDIK)

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a self-pollinating diploid (2n=2x=14) species belonging to the Fabaceae family. It is one of the oldest crops known, with 8,000 to 9,000 years of history and it is among the earliest domesticates from the Near East Fertile Crescent. The seeds have high nutritional value. This crop is an interesting substitute to wheat in cereal rotations but its importance is low due to a lack of suitable varieties with local adaptation. Some of the major problems that Argentinian lentil breeders face are the narrow genetic base of the current cultivated germplasm and its low yield potential. A lentil breeding program was initiated in 2004 to develop new varieties with adaptation to prevalent conditions in growing areas of Argentina. Germplasm was obtained from ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas) and local producers. Conventional breeding methods using hybridization and selection are being carried out to develop improved varieties, broad the genetic base, and isolate superior recombinant inbred lines. Two new varieties have been obtained, one of the macrosperm type (Boyerito FCA) and the other of the microsperm type (Tacuarita FCA) through the application of mass selection in F2 populations from the cross of selected materials. This program complements traditional breeding methods with biotechnological techniques such as transgenesis, use of molecular markers, in vitro embryo culture combined with the SSD method to shorten the breeding time, and digital phenotyping. Key words: Lentil, conventional methodologies, in vitro embryo culture, biotechnology techniques, digital phenotyping.

Cultivars and lines from ICARDA in spring durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) breeding in the Lower Volga region

Background. In 1991, under the cooperation agreement, the Federal Center of Agriculture Research (FCAR) of the South-East Region received the first improved accessions from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The objective of this work was to study the source material developed under comparable conditions of dryland agriculture and include the best accessions in scientific breeding programs.Material and methods. The presented data resulted from the study of spring durum wheat cultivars and lines from ICARDA (Aleppo, Syria), conducted in 1991–1998. Accessions with the best indicators of grain quality, adapted to the conditions of the Lower Volga, were selected and included into the crossing program. Grain analysis was carried out using the conventional methods for durum wheat as well as those modified by the Spring Durum Wheat Breeding Laboratory of the FCAR of the South-East.Result and conclusion. Many years of work led to identifying 22 lines of spring durum wheat, selected in the breeding nursery of the Main Competitive Trails (MCT) and in different years involved in complex multistep hybridization. The spring durum wheat cultivar ‘Lilek’ was included into the State Register for Selection Achievements in 2009, while cv. ‘Tamara’ was submitted to the State Variety Trials in 2020.

Evaluation of a Set of Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum Accessions for β-Glucans and Microelement Contents

Barley is one of the oldest domesticated crops in the world and is mainly used for feed and malt and to a lesser extent as food. The use of barley as food is a tradition in communities in some countries of North Africa, Europe, and Asia. However, due to the health-promoting properties of barley grain, there is an increasing interest in such use. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) has a global mandate for barley improvement and holds rich in-trust collections of cultivated and wild Hordeum species. The present study aims to evaluate 117 accessions of Hordeum spontaneum for their contents of β-glucan and microelements for breeding new varieties with enhanced nutritional value. The bulked seed accessions of Hordeum spontaneum were grown over two seasons, and the single plant derived seeds from these accessions were compared to 36 elite lines and varieties of cultivated barley in the second season in Morocco. The results showed large differences in β-glucan and microelements in both the bulk and the single plant seed accessions. The contents of β-glucans ranged from 1.44 to 11.3% in the Hordeum spontaneum accessions and from 1.62 to 7.81% in the cultivated barley lines. Large variations were found for the microelements content, but no differences were noticed between the wild and the cultivated species. However, some accessions of Hordeum spontaneum had higher combined contents of Iron, Zinc, and Selenium. Such accessions are used in interspecific crosses to develop biofortified barley germplasm and varieties.

Sheep fattening and fodder-soil conservation in Ethiopia: An outcome case study report. TAAT MEL working document no. 003

The Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation ( TAAT) is a program initiated by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of its Feed Africa Initiative. The main objective of the program is to improve the business of agriculture across Africa by raising agricultural productivity, mitigating risks, and promoting diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight Priority Intervention Areas (PIA). The program is implemented by International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in close partnership with other CGIAR Centers and specialized technical centers (e.g. AATF, IFDC), FARA, national agricultural research, and extension systems, and private sector partners. This document presents the results of MEL case study of two technology interventions supported by the Small Livestock Compact of the African Development Bank's (AfDB) Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program. The first is the sheep fattening program in partnership with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The project was implemented in collaboration with ICARDA led Community-Based Breeding Program (CCBP) in Bonga and Doyogena, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) and in Menz, Amhara region of Ethiopia. The second intervention was aimed at incorporating forage production into soil and water conservation structures, and to erosion control for improved fodder production, enhanced feed availability and improving livelihood. This project was implemented in Ethiopia's highlands through a partnership with Inter-Aide.

Taxonomic Relevance of Seed and Seedling Morphology in Some Species of Medicago (Leguminosae)

The genus Medicago L. belongs to the family Fabaceae, subfamily Papilionoideae, tribe Trifolieae. Seed and seedling morphology of twenty-five taxa under two sections and three subsections of the genus Medicago have been studied based on fresh materials. Seeds were obtained from the Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Germany and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria. External and internal morphological characteristics of seeds and seedlings were observed. The characters of seeds, hypocotyl, paracotyledons, epicotyl and first leaves of seedlings provide important information which has been used in construction of artificial keys for identification purpose. Significant characters like seed color, shape, radical length in relation to seed length, epicotyl color and hairiness, first foliage leaf shape and hairiness used as important morphological descriptors for species identification. Cluster analysis has been used to determine taxonomic interrelationships among the investigated taxa.

Deciphering Morpho-taxonomic Variability in Lathyrus Species

Twenty accessions of Lathyrus belonging to four different species such as L. sativus, L. cicera, L. aphaca and L. odoratus were obtained from ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) genebank, New Delhi and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). All the accessions were grown at the experimental farm of ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi, India, during the rabi seasons of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Agro-morphological delineation was carried out using 24 qualitative and 18 quantitative traits by following standard Lathyrus descriptors. The results indicated a wide range of variation for both qualitative and quantitative characteristics among the accessions. Remarkable distinguishing feature was observed at the different crop growth stages like seedling, pod and maturity stage. Among the species, L. odoratus had early maturity, whereas L. aphaca exhibited late maturity. The average value of hundred seed weight was highest in L. sativus followed by L. cicera and L. odoratus while the lowest value was recorded in L. aphaca. Based on hierarchical clustering, all accessions were grouped into four clusters. Our findings could be used as reference in species identification and understanding the diversity within and among Lathyrus species.